Just came back from watching Cinderella Man. It was a good movie! I can't imagine how life was like during the depression. I mean, living literally on a few dollars here and there, a few cents here and there is incredible. I would imagine that most people who lead a fairly good life today can't even start to imagine what this feels like. Anyway, it just made me a think a little (you know, like I always say I do in these blogs). I have it pretty good despite all the bad things that may happen. And now I'm beginning to think more like it's ok to not have everything. I mean, yeah, I've always thought that, but really, I don't need all the fast cars that I want to get or even small things like video games or to play golf. There are really only a few things you really need in life...pretty much for everyone across the board, in my opinion. I don't really want to get into the details. Maybe that'll be the next blog or something, but it's along the lines of friends, family, and a dash of _____. I'll fill in the blank later!

So it seems that my car finally took a turn for the worse. It started to erratically not start in the last few days and today it just stopped trying to turn on. Went to the Honda dealership to see about some parts. I bought a new main relay, which didn't do much, but I guess for the $64 that I paid, I can tell myself that now THAT'S not the problem. Next up was why it wasn't giving power to the main relay. The ignition switch. Since that was the next problem (most likely) I bought that online with next day shipping. Hopefully that will come Saturday and install it that day. If THAT doesn't work? Well, I spent just over a hundred dollars to figure out that it wasn't the parts that I just bought. I don't know what else it could be after this Saturday, so it's going to be off to the dealership to see if they can fix it...I know they will rape me up the ass.

I guess on the good end of things, I learned a bit more of how the car works...good thing or a bad thing who knows.

Well, that's all...

So I'm still waiting to hear back from Inverness. I hate waiting. You would think that if they are busy and short on people, they would get back to you as soon as possible. I called another place yesterday and left a message on the voicemail concerning an ad I saw in the paper. No word yet. I sometimes begin to wonder if people really call back or they know why they put ads in the paper...because they need people!

Anyway, I just had this sudden urge to see the ocean. I haven't been to the beach or seen the ocean or smelled the ocean in a loooong time. The last time was probably back in the early 90s when I was visiting my sister in Monterey, near San Jose, California. I remember we were on this rocky beach area and looking through the cracks and stuff where crabs or something lived and cool little sink hole type things where the water carved out wells and stuff. I was to see somewhere different this time, though. Maybe a more tropical location with a hidden cove or something. It would remind me of like a pirate story or something where the pirates are just chillin' and resting at a cove that nobody knows about or something. Oh well, maybe in the near future.

I'm going to get ready and head to the bank and then to eat now. See ya.

It's 1:33am...I'm starting to sleep earlier! lol. Chris just bought a new series of the car video game that we used to play on the PS2, but this one's for the Xbox and it seems to be much better. It's so easy to get into these kinds of games. I'm tired now and my eyes are hurting from watching too much TV.

I'm not sure what I'm doing tomorrow, but I'm going to see if TJ is free to do something. Waiting for Inverness to contact me is so, well, frustrating and nervous at the same time. Will I get the job? Will they say no? I always hate it when they say a position is filled. Anyway, I'm going to head to sleep now. I'll probably wake up around 11 or something tomorrow...because I have mono (a joke to Laura).

Good night.

Damn! 1:44am again. I can't sleep. I don't know why. I'm going to actually try and get to sleep after this blog, but anyway. Had my interview at the Inverness yesterday. I think it went well, but there are other candidates that they are going to look over for over the weekend and then they're supposed to get back to me early next week. Other things on my mind are figuring out whether or not I am going to be staying with Laura's parents over the Summer, what's going to happen after the Inverness job...well, before we get that far, I need to GET the Inverness job...which if I don't get, I don't know what's going to happen. I guess wait for my boss from Alaska to maybe/hopefully write back and say he can get me a job in Jackson Hole. And then that's another ordeal I have to deal with in finding a place to live and stuff like that. I really hope I get the Inverness job. But anyway, had dinner with TJ last night. That was fun. I am back to doing nothing tomorrow and until I get a call from the Inverness...well, that's all for tonight. Laters.

Well, it's 4:07am and I just wanted to say I love you, Laura. I hope you know that I really mean it.

Another late night/early morning post...this time, it's like 3:30 in the morning. WTF? I went to bed at like 12:30 and I couldn't get to sleep. I was just thinking about a lot of stuff. Anyway, I think I am just going to stay up and get breakfast with Laura or something. I think she'll get home at like 9 I think...6 hours to kill!!! I may watch a movie, but who knows. One thing I know for sure is that I'm going to be tired as hell later today. I am going to Kohls to get some nice shirts for the interview coming up. I REALLY hope I get it...otherwise I'm sort of screwed! Really! No money, no job, and stuff coming up to pay for things don't add up. Well, I'm going to go find a movie to watch and I'll be on my way. I can't wait to see you Laura! This may be the first time, if I stay awake, that I am awake when you get home! At this time, however, I am thinking of going to sleep for the few hours that I can...ugh, I should have went to sleep early. The thing is, it's hard to sleep without Laura. :)

A little late night posting. It's 1:30am. Laura's sleeping downstairs and I don't want to wake her if I go down there. I'm really not that tired, but I'm tired at the same time, if you know what I mean. Thursday is my interview! Hopefully it goes well.

Among bad news, my car won't start! It sucks. I was going to go cruising, but my car just ticks and ticks and won't start. It may be the battery, but I REALLY don't want to go buy another battery if it's not going to fix it. I want to know what's wrong with it! The thing is, that same thing has happened in the past, but it just got better and the car started in a few minutes. It seems that this time it's not the case. I fucking hope it's fixed by the time Thursday rolls around. Anyway, Laura works tomorrow morning, so I may just sleep up here and wake up in the morning and make coffee for us or something. It's weird. I'm just sitting here, surfing around, no work, no school (except an internship), and there's really nothing that I can be doing. Well, I guess I can look for a job, and it's probably a bad idea for me to assume that I'm going to get the Inverness job, even if it is just for the summer. I don't know what I'm doing right now. :(

Well, it's Susan's b-day today technically, so. That's about it. I'm gonna head to bed soon. See ya.

I think it's safe to say that in the last, what 14 days, a lot has happened and have thought a lot about things.

Just an update. My graduation was good. My brother came and my Mom, and a few friends. Did the whole thing and then went to Hibachi for some dinner. That was good too. And then the day after, it was the whole "me leaving for Alaska" thing and that passed. I had a loooooong day ahead of me. I ended up not staying at the airport and got a hotel that was open all night. Next day, we leave for Denali on the shuttle. Met some friends through the trip and turned out that those friends were my roommates. Good? Well, let's continue the story.

The place was great, the job seemed good, but everything else was not me. The employees and roommates were great, when they were not drunk, which was every night. The management I thought sucked...nothing was ready, including rooms, amenities, and even training was a little hectic.

So what did I do? I quit after my 3rd day. I talked to my manager and explained everything. He understood. It seemed like he was going to be leaving as well...he said to give him a call whenever he's back in Jackson Hole in Wyoming if I ever needed a job. I may just do that. It was an interesting experience nonetheless...I was out there for 1 week, almost to the hour. I don't know, the environment just wasn't for me. I don't care what others may think about that, but it just wasn't for me. Yeah, I may have wasted some things like the plane ticket and some money, but it's a learning experience. It'll be a great place to visit, though. Lots of things to do and see.

Now I'm back home, no job and practically done with school...I sent in some applications at hotels in Denver...haven't heard back yet, obviously, but I don't know what the hell I'm doing right now. I'm just sitting here and money is going to start to run low fast. I'm waiting for my Mom to call back when she gets back in from New York. That was probably fun.

The thing is that the people in Alaska are weird. Not in the sense that they look weird or act weird, but, well, yeah, their thoughts and actions mix. Like, all of them are there for a reason, to work. They are also there for another reason. Because they like the outdoors and nature at least to some degree. The strange thing is, at least to me, is that they don't act like that. They drink, smoke weed, etc. and do all these things, but it's just hard to think that inside, they're generally cool, nice people like any other person. I don't know, and they're even smart as well. They're mostly in school and all that and most have done this for a few seasons and stuff. It's just weird.

But now, I'll be here and taking in the changes that will be happening in the next few weeks. Moving, getting a new job (although being unemployed is sort of cool!) and then watching Laura head up to Wyoming, where I might head as well. Who knows. It's weird that the future is never a written story, you know? Like 1 week ago, I had it in my head that I was going to be coming back in September. Well that didn't come out like that!

But anyway, just thought I'd write a little about the craziness going on right now.

Hopefully I'll have some ENCOURAGING news in the next few days!

Just to note, this is probably going to be my final blog to a while, like 4 months while. Between work, getting used to Alaska, doing assignments for the internship, I probably won't have much time, if any, to come on to blog.

So anyway, this Wednesday is going to be my last work day. I can't believe it. I've worked over there for over 3 years. I think it's 3. They're throwing me a little, 'send away' social or something rather Wednesday. Just ice cream and brownies or something. I actually liked working there, but at the same time, I think it would be better if I left. It was so dang boring and that's just the start of it. I have made some good friends through it, though. Gaming friends which I intend to get together with again after my internship to play games. A good boss and supervisor that can give me some recommendations. And of course, there's Shannon whom I'm good friends with now. I remember when she was working on the other side of the building when I first started and then she moved to the desk in front of me. I can't even remember that far back. And there's Lee and her husband (a fellow gamer). Laura and I went to the Renaissance Festival with them last year. That was fun. All in all, I will miss working there, but like I said, I can't wait to find new ground.

What will I be doing? I hope to be working at a hotel or similar establishment when I get back. I may try and get a job up in Laramie working with the city and the parks and recreation division, but who knows. It's 4 months away now.

Lately I've been having the urge to do my Master's. There's a good looking program at the University of Tennessee for a Master's in Urban and Regional Planning. That interests me. Other than that, probably an MBA in human resources or something would be good.

The next couple of days, as well as the next few months will be turning points in my and Laura's life for sure. She's moving up to Laramie, I'm finishing school, being gone while she moves up there and all that. Life is starting to begin! It's exciting. I love you Laura. What the future holds? No one knows. We'll take it one step at a time.

So with that said, if I don't write back in approximately a little over a month, I'm dead. :) I'll be taking lots of pictures and such as well which I'll be posting up. I think that's it for me. Grades will probably be due next week, but unless I remember to check it when I'm up in Alaska, I probably won't check it until I get back. I'm nervous for my grades. It's one of those things where it can go either way, like good, as in 3.0 or great, as in 3.5+. We'll see. Heck, I have no more classes, so, haha!

Come to you, come to you, come to youuuuu!!!!!!!

So an update:

1. Fundamentals of Management - done!
2. Tourism Promotion - Done!
3. Tourism Impacts - Done!
4. Tourism Planning - Done!
5. Economics of Natural Resource - Taking final on Wednesday
6. Event and Conference Planning - Taking final on Wednesday

And that, folks, will be the last (well, maybe) test I'll take for my undergraduate career.

Among other news, t-minus 1 week before I head to the unknown area of Alaska. Getting more and more nervous by the minute! Other than that, though, things have been calm.

I've been thinking about doing a Master's program more and more. I might end up doing a Master's for business or some other related area at Wyoming, maybe the last couple years of Laura's Ph.D so we can both finish at the same time. A Master's will help out a lot.

Well, that's all for now. We're going to go eat dinner in a few hours with Holly and Susan. Laters!

It's May 3rd. Here's an update on my classes for the last semester of my undergraduate career!

1. Fundamentals of Management - done!
2. Tourism Promotion - Done!
3. Tourism Impacts - Done!
4. Tourism Planning - Just gotta turn in a 90% finished group paper
5. Economics of Natural Resource - pending - maybe a final, maybe not
6. Event and Conference Planning - 1 test and 1 presentation left

I'm outta here in 1.5 weeks. Scary and exciting at the same time!

Less than 2 weeks until I leave for Alaska...I can't believe how fast it's going and how fast this semester went. I have a grueling next 3 days to tackle in terms of tests, presentations and papers, but after that, I'm done! Well, for the most part.

Today's our monthly anniversary! I love you Laura!

Last night we went to the Carousel Dinner Theatre and Beauty and the Beast was playing. It was a great time! The food was good and the play, including the cast and set, was great. I would even go again if we have time before I leave.

Anyway, I just made some experimental soup and I'm waiting for Laura to come back.

Wow, interesting turn of events...one of the people that got accepted to Wyoming's Ph.D program decided not to go, so naturally, the next person in line was picked...and who was that? Laura! I'm so happy for her that she got in. No more $30,000 loan for her!

Now, this might change some things...such as whether or not I'll still move down to Denver to work at a hotel or something to get some experience. I'm not sure yet though. There is a Holiday Inn Express that is being built right now right where my work it and I would like to work there and get experience, but we'll see. I don't know when it will be done, so I'll have to swing by sometime and take a look. Otherwise, I'll worry about finding a job when I get back.

Only 3 more weeks until I'm done with school and I'm out of here for the summer! It's going by so quick. I should really get going on getting ready to go, as in buying the dress I need and buying some bathroom necessities for when I arrive in Denali. I probably won't be able to write in here for the entire time, but who knows. I might.

See ya laters.

Tomorrow is going to be a tough day! Luckily, one of the teachers generously moved her test tomorrow to Friday because we're giving a presentation in the class after that. Still, I have a test and a presentation tomorrow. Poo.

Already less than a month to go before I'm off to Alaska. Time is flying by quick. A few things to report today.

Yesterday, Laura and I headed up to Estes Park and RMNP and hiked up to this lake called Bierstadt (?) Lake. It was 1.2 miles, but it felt much longer. The middle part of the hike was the best and easiest, the beginning and end had snow on them. Anyway, the lake was frozen, but it was cool. It would have been nice to see it thawed out. My legs hurt a little today.

I saw my Mom today and she gave me the new digital camera that my brother go me for my graduation gift. It's sweet! 3.2 megapixels and a whole slew of features that I probably won't use, but yeah, it's pretty neat. I love the focus feature. I'm hoping to take some great photos in Alaska and use them for my wallpaper since the resolution is MUCH better than my piece of crap old one.

That's about it to say.

Ashley just called (like JUST) and said they were lost in Boulder. They're headed the right way now.

I want to take some pictures with my camera, but I don't know of what! I need a bigger memory card which I might ask Laura's Mom to get but yeah, it's convenient because the type of card it uses is also the slot in my laptop. w00t!

And yeah, www.csuconnection.com is once again closed. :)

I hope you get in Laura. :)

A little early-night blogging from me.

I'm now realizing that in a little over 1 month, a lot of things are going to happen really quickly. Let's go over briefly what's going to happen.

1. I'm going to be living in fucking Alaska for 4 months! It hasn't hit me yet, but it will soon. Apart from moving from California to Colorado in '96...and, well, to Fort Collins in 2000 I guess...I haven't really done anything this drastic until now. I know no one there. Don't know the area. Don't know what kind of job I'll have (yeah, it's front desk, but you know what I mean), and so forth. I'm going to have to get used to it pretty quick if you ask me.

2. I have to get all my shit together fast since I have, like, a day after I graduate to get everything ready to go. Granted I'm going to start packing much earlier than the day before, it's just going to be chaotic to say the least. I have to take care of car insurance stuff the day I leave, I have to finish up work (last day will probably be the 11th of May), say bye to friends, get internship papers ready, etc.

3. The biggest thing is that I'm going to be with people I don't even know. Yeah, I already mentioned this, but anyway. I'm going to be away from Laura for 4 months. I can't even imagine that. She was away for about 2 months or something last summer and it was hard. Laura just called to say I love you and made me think about the summer and how it's going to be. Making me more nervous I guess.

4. I guess the good thing that will come out of this is the fact that it's an experience that I'll probably only be able to have at this age. I have to try and look at the good things that will come out of this job. You know, I should say internship, but it's weird as it doesn't seem to look like an internship right now. Anyway, yeah, it'll be good for my future job plans.

School is sort of going steady, nothing too hard coming up and it should be a "breeze" the rest of the way in. That's good to here. I am going to make one resolution for tonight until I leave for Alaska. I need to try and spend as much time with Laura as I can! I am going to miss her a lot.

Well enough of this. Laters.

Laura's happy and that makes me happy!

So it's about a month and a couple of weeks before I'm off to pretty much frontier land. We all got a team e-mail sent to everyone who's going to be working at the front desk. Seems like I'll be working with 9 other people and those include the managers and assistant managers and stuff. Should be fun! I like small group work forces. But yeah, the bummer part of this is that I guess I'm going to be missing 2 days of training by the time I get out there. I guess they train Friday and Saturday...that sucks! I'm going to miss out on the first couple of nights of "hangin out" with the work group and getting to know each other. Dammit! Oh well, hopefully I can sneak myself into it.

I just remember that I have an economics homework due tomorrow, so I'm going to get on that right now. Laters.

Man, my visual-related headaches seem to be back again. It was good for a few days but it's back now. I took a couple of Advils and it's getting better. I'm listening to some classical music to see if that does anything. I think it does. Classical is so calming.

I can't wait for this week to be over already, school-wise. Just lots of stuff to do.

Just wanted to post that.

Well I guess it's time to finally sit down and write some details. So, I accepted the job at the Denali Bluffs, not my first choice but anyway. The reason I did that was because I felt as though Talkeetna wasn't really trying or interested in hiring me. I probably did have the job since the hiring lady told me they were just waiting for a spot in the housing to open, but I don't know what would have happened if they didn't find any spots. Plus, since I didn't get the internship job there, I didn't want to further ask if they could work with CSU to make the job an internship. The hiring lady at the Bluffs was really nice, talked to her a couple of times and was willing to work with making the job an internship, but long story short, Denali Bluffs won out. I'd rather be working with people that are nice than a place that's nice but not nice people. Hopefully I'll know soon who I'll be working with and all that. All and all, I can't wait to do this!

I don't have much time to get ready either, I leave pretty much right after I graduate, so I have to be ready a couple of weeks before I go. It's going to be hectic and then I have to do training and get settled into the Alaskan way of life, which is going to be weird at first. Hopefully I can make some friends quickly and all that and settle down. It's sort of nervous, you know, considering you're moving somewhere you haven't been, with people you've never met, for 4 months taking only a week or so worth of clothing and so on and so forth. Heck, I haven't even met the employer that's hiring me! It's strange to think of how the world works when you're actually part of the process. It would be weird for me to hire someone over the phone and internet. I would have lots of doubts whether or not the people I'm interviewing will be fit for the job and stuff. And since it's Alaska, there are lots of people who just go there seasonally and probably their first time there, like me. I intend to have a good time though. Gonna take lots of pictures! The thing I'll miss the most, apart from Laura, :), is probably all the amenities I have here. Well, I'm not quite sure how much of it will be there, but you know, internet, computers, etc. I'll probably have intermittent internet access...well, since I'm front desk, I'll probably have access. I don't know whether I should take my phone there or not. I'll take it anyway. Waste of minutes if I don't try and use it at least!

That aside, we went to Colorado Springs for a couple of days this Spring Break. Did some hiking at the Garden of the Gods, went to the Cave of the Winds and had some local foods. It was overall fun. AGAIN, we couldn't do the lantern tour because this time it was because it's weekends only and we failed to catch that little tidbit. Oh well. Spring Break is over and now it's back to the normal routine again. I don't really want to go back to work tomorrow, but I have to obviously. School is (I know for sure) going to get rough again the next couple of weeks since I have a few big things that I have to get done. After that, though, like after mid April, it should be a breeze. Hell, if you think about it after mid April, that's all the school I have left. The last big project I think I have is due first week of May. I leave the 14th. Wow, time is flying by really fast.

My brother was nice enough to get me a ticket with his miles to Alaska, so that saved me a hefty $450 or so. I'm probably going to get a hotel room near Anchorage for the night I get there, even though it'll be for like 10 hours. I need to save money since I won't get paid for the first few weeks I'm there.

And yeah, after my job there??? Who the hell knows! I was thinking of working and travelling Ireland/Europe, but I don't know. That's even bigger than working in Alaska!

Anyway, I'm going to go watch Laura play some Baten Kaitos. She's almost done with it.

Hello!

I'll get straight to the point this time. Well, I sent in my signed fax form to my employer for the summer. Where you say? The Denali Bluffs Hotel, run by Aramark. Why not Talkeetna you say? Well, a lot of things adding up to the decision, but I will just leave it at indecision and testing my patience did it.

I'm going to leave the details at that right now, because I'm not 100% sure yet, but I'll right back when I hear more stuff!

So, where to begin?

I guess let's discuss my internship situation. So on Monday I was like, I wonder if anyone is going to write back or call about my applications and what not. Around 5:00pm, I decided return a call to Denali Park and Resorts about an offer they wanted to give me. I was stoked. The hiring lady is really nice and sounds like a fun place to work. I officially got an offer letter from them yesterday and I have 10 days to respond. The interesting part start here. Talkeetna, my first choice, also replied within minutes of that call and said they're looking for housing since they want me at the front desk. Now, I'm a little confused whether or not I got the job "officially" so I don't know. It would be weird for them to look for housing if I'm not offered the job, but anywho. That's that. So I e-mail today since they said they'd get back to me yesterday. They are now just waiting for a spot to open up. What does that mean? I have to just sit here? What if a spot doesn't open up in the 10 days I have to accept the other job? So yeah, I'm getting a little nervous here but if I don't hear back from Talkeetna in, oh, 4 days or so, I'm going to e-mail them back and see what the dealio is. Otherwise I'd take the Denali Park and Resorts job for sure. ANOTHER funny thing is that today I got a call from Crater Lake Lodges in Oregon saying that they want to offer me a job, but I have to call to talk with them about it. I don't know what to do! I think I'm going to decline the Crater Lake one, though it looks pretty cool.

All this amidst midterm-ish week. I have had so much shit due this week it's unbelievable. I have a paper that I already finished due today and there's a midterm today as well. I think I should do all right in this one. Tomorrow there's a huge paper that I have to work on after my class tonight. I just actually have to add citations and tweak it a bit since I'm already done with the bulk of it.

Anyway, that's my rant for the moment. Next week is Spring Break and Laura, Ashley, Chris and I are going to Colorado Springs for a couple of days next Thur/Fri. Should be fun. I am dog sitting this weekend again for my coworker. Hey it's money! I am going to work on some projects I have for work while I'm there since I usually have NOTHING to do there. It's relaxing though.

Other than that, everything's good I guess. All these things that are happening I guess aren't really negative, but things that just happen, you know? Next week will be a good break. Finally.

However, I am getting nervous (yeah, already!) about working and staying up in Alaska. I guess it just hit me. lol. But hopefully I'll make some friends quickly and see how it goes. And then the big question of what the hell is going to happen AFTER the Summer. What am I going to do? Laura's not sure yet where she'll be going, but she'll find out soon, though, probably before I leave. The thing is, I graduate on the 13th of May and I'll have to leave for Alaska within a couple of days of it! It's crazy. And then I have to sign up for the internship, which is another story. I have to talk to my coordinator to see whether or not this "job" will apply as one. It better, or I'll be screwed! Then the shit with tuition will be up my ass as welll. It's nearly $1000 for 5 fricken credits. What a rip off. Anyway, just lots of shit going on.

Well, I'm going to go eat my bratwursts and then get ready for my class/test. It's going to be a long night!

Laters.

It certainly has been a while. School suddenly got busy and all that jazz, so I've actually (probably for the first time) been strapped for time since there are so many damn things to do and so many projects that are going on (of which I'm behind in). Anyway, I have some time now to update on things. Well, things went downhill on the TJ situation, but I'm not sure what the status is right now. Work is going good. I got a big project actually that'll keep me quite busy. I haven't really heard back from my internship stuff yet...which sucks. Spring Break is coming up, but you know, there's always troubles of what to do. We may end up going to Estes Park for a couple of days.

Other than that, I sent a few things I wanted for graduation to my brother since he asked me for a list where he could choose on thing was. I sat down and thought, but I really couldn't think of anything. I put a DVD player, digital camera, and a muffler for my car. Yeah, there's really nothing that I want.

I've been REALLY into first person shooters lately. I got into the PC Halo addiction for a while there and then now it's Starcraft. I think this weekend we might head down to Laura's parent's house for me to play Halo 2. Yes. All the way down to try out Halo 2. It looks awesome. I can't wait to play it if we are going down.

Ashley got a ferret. I saw it a few days ago. It's pretty cool I guess. I still want a dog though. I'm almost done with school in 3 months! That's crazy. After that, I'm hopefully going to be doing my internship somewhere in Alaska...and then, after we know where Laura goes to grad school, I might be taking a few months off, just working and travelling before I settle down. I was thinking of working and travelling Ireland for like 6 months. That's a long time, but I think it would be so cool to do. Yeah, it's definitely a little nerve racking, considering I'll be at a place I don't know ANYTHING about and I don't know ANYONE. Sort of scary. I don't know, maybe I'll work somewhere in the US, but we'll see. It'll take some time to think about it.

It's starting to become Spring time, sort of. It's getting relatively warmer, but it's still chilly when the wind blows. I'm ready for Bandimere to be open. I'm only going to be able to run my car a few times before I leave, though so I better make them count. I was then thinking about what I was going to do with the insurance on my car. I think I decided if I do go out of town for that long, I'm just going to cancel my insurance for that time and save some money.

I just got the urge to go online and search for some jobs in Nevada.

I'll continue again soon. Laters.

Happy b-day Laura!!!!

Well, I just wanted to put this blog before I forgot. I saw Finding Neverland with Johnny Depp a few weeks ago and I want to say this was one of the best movies I have seen in a looong time. I don't recall one part of the movie where I wasn't interested or unengaged or was boring. I really liked the storyline and so forth. I'm not a fan of Kate Winslett (because of Titanic), but she was ok in her role. A+ for the movie. It didn't win a Golden Globe, but it's nominated for an academy award, so we'll see how it does in that.

Just saying a quick hello! Gonna head to bed now.

2 hours until my birthday. Time to reflect huh? 23 years old. Come to think of it, 23 is soooooo old, relatively speaking. But then again, it's pretty young. I've got a long life ahead of me, full of surprises. I just hope that my life isn't some boring little adventure. I want it to be full of excitement and stuff, ya know? I think travelling the world with Laura would be awesome. I think we're going to try to go to a bunch of places including Africa, Europe, Asia, and S.A. I guess that's pretty much all the continents, but yeah. You get the point.

I filed my taxes last night and if all goes well, I'll get roughly $1400 back. All of which is already "spent". Car insurance and credit card payments baby. I will also pay SOME of my balance for my laptop. I would like to get that out of the way. Other than that, that's a lot of money I get and so little time to see it.

It feels like a long weekend. It's only Sat. night and I feel as though it's Sunday night. Good or bad I guess depending on how you look at it. Got back into Halo again. Playing online now. It's fun. That's all for the update. Tomorrow's a time to relax!

Another edition of weird thoughts going in my head.

So sometime (today? yesterday?) Laura was telling me about how a person at her work was dancing and stuff while listening to music (at least that's how I interpreted it) and I thought to myself what...well, let me start over. I always think about what others are thinking, doing, etc...you know, how they live their lives and such. When you get down to it, everyone needs certain things to live. Everything apart from that is filler I think, to make our lives more enjoyable, etc.

Okay, that didn't make sense at all...even I don't know what I'm saying. Anyway, I just thought that man, people are basically the same at heart and they do the same things as me and everyone else, they say the same things, experiences (more or less) the same things and think the same way. I wonder if they have worries like me. I wonder if they are happy like me and so forth. I know everyone's lives are different, but they can't be all that different. College kids go to school, work, come home, and hang out. Pretty much it until you graduate and then you just take out school...that about covers it doesn't it? I guess you replace that with an optionial "take care of your family" huh?

Bottom line, I guess I want to say for the moral of this night's blog to be that friends are super important in life. It's hard to make them, but you can erase them in a second. Hold on to what you have I guess. If you think of life as a sin curve, I wonder what part of the curve I'm at right now...the bottom? Top? Middle? On my way to going up to the top? Down to the bottom? We'll see soon enough.

Mid February is when I'll know about my internships. I'm sort of nervous. What if I don't get either? I guess it's not that big of a deal since I'm not in any hurry after May...well, I'll be strapped for cash BIG TIME if I don't do something then...but yeah, I guess I should keep searching for internships. My boss has been supportive saying I'll get at least one of them. We'll see about that eh?

I'm gonna head to bed...my classes are early tomorrow...I need to stop spending money...and I need to get back into school mode. I haven't done much except take notes in class, so...but then again most are discussion classes...which I'm not good at discussions. I think I'm going to have to change a bit of my style this semester. I'm going to have to be a little more outspoken...it's going to be hard but I think it's for the better.

On another note, I've pretty much conquered Tales of Symphonia...beat most of the side quests, the ones I can do anyway. If I want to do and get everything, I'll have to start another game and I don't think that'll be good considering I've just started a semester...my last one at that. ;)

See ya.

Tomorrow is the first day of my last semester! Well, I have to go in to my advisor again and make sure that it is, but I'm pretty sure that it is. Anyway, I hope this semester is as good as last semester, both grade wise and time wise. Time wise you say? Well, last semester was probably the fastest semester that I ever had. I don't know why. Maybe it was because the classes that I took were actually interesting and I had fun. Maybe, maybe not. Anywho, just wanted to get this last bit of rambling before I head to bed.

It's always weird for the first day of school. Even when I'm this old and it's my 5th year of college! It's also weird that some of my friends are done with school, so they don't have to worry about school anymore. Just a strange feeling you know?

Well, that's all. Catch you sometime soon I'm sure. Maybe later this week to tell you how my semester will likely go. Until next time.

P.S. I wonder if there's a way or ever going to be a way to print all your blogs from the site...that would be helpful as I want to archive for myself...sometime...

Hello.

While I was making myself a "sleeping time" CD and testing it out on my old ass CD player from the mid 90s...something just hit me. Like, I can't even explain it. I guess the realization that, whoa, I'm just a tiny speck on the planet and the universe, or something to that extent. I just sat there for a minute or two thinking was purpose life brings to whomever's life you are currently talking about. And then the realization that the world does indeed go on regardless of you. Time really doesn't discriminate!

This blog is sort of a geeky one don't ya think? Anyway, I just wanted to catalog that little moment. The battle between the two internships is still going. There are two I want, well, one I REALLY want and another that is sort of a back up, which happens to be (probably) the one that I can most likely take right now. The other one is still in the interviewing process and the lady will probably notify me in mid February...not good considering that's over a month from now and I have to notify my other people about what I want to decide within a week from now, no more than a week and a half. My brother said if he learned anything it's that you shouldn't wait for things to resolve, otherwise you could end up with the worst situation, in this case, me not getting EITHER internship. Should I wait? Should I accept the one that is second choice??? I don't know what to do! I'll have to think about this while I got to sleep the next few nights I guess.

Among other news, school is starting next week. Woohoo. I've been waiting since these long breaks are just killer as they are so boring. My last semester as I've said a couple of times now. I'm actually moving on!

Well, I'll talk to you later. Laura, if you're reading this before I talk to you, which will be very unlikely, I beat Tales of Symphonia and I beat Abbyssion!!! He was hard as hell, but it was on my first try...lots of items later and Raine dead, I came out the victor!

I love you.

Howdy,

First post of 2005. Seems refreshing. So it's been over 2 years (3?!?!) since I started the blog venture. Crazy stuff.

It's 12:17am and thought I'd write a little bit. It's amazing how much you really want to write a journal, but don't want to because you don't want to have to write it in a book. My hands would get tired after writing a sentence, but thanks to the cool folks at Blogger, we can do this from a computer...quickening the writing pace by hundred-fold. Well, maybe no hundred fold, but anyway.

Good news, if you want to think of it that way. I think I'm having a phone interview on Thursday from the place that I want to internship the most. That's awesome. I'm probably going to start to get more and more nervous as the time comes, but yeah. I'm going to have to go through the potential questions in my head the night before to make sure I don't fuck it up. And then I was thinking, maybe I could try and be unique but that could end up bad too. I guess the best way is to act yourself so if they DO hire me in, I won't act all different, ya know? I didn't go to work today. I don't know why, I just didn't. I was really tired for some reason. I better start sleeping earlier when the beginning of the semester comes around since I have to wake up at 7 every morning. Yup, that's right. I HAVE to this time. M/W is work from 7 to 11:30, then class, and back to work at 1:30 or so. T/Th I have class all day. F is an exception once again. Anyway, I'm going to head to work today and see what's up.

Oh yeah, I went to my first "LAN party" last Saturday and it was fun. It was all people from my work, 6 in all including me. The games we played were fun and right now I'm addicted to HALO. Fun game. Tales of Symphonia is fun too for the Game Cube. I sort of let off on that game for right now, but I'm going to get back into it so I can get on to the second disk. Laura's been playing that game a lot lately.

Anyway, lately I haven't been me for some reason. I'm really "on the edge" or more descriptively, snappy for some reason. I hope it gets resolved soon.

Well, I'm going to head to bed with some music on. Yeah, I moved my speakers into my bedroom so I can listen to ambient noises while I sleep. It's pretty cool. I sometimes think about being/living in a fantasy world like Tales of Symphonia and HALO and places like that. Oh well. laters.

Whoa, new post already! It's because I'm bored. Sort of took the day off early today...just a couple of hours of at the office. Not work, because I really didn't do any of that. Anyway, cool stuff to tell you about. I was bored last night as always and I wanted to see if I can find my old friends online, whether that be through Google or Classmates.com or whatever. It turns out that it's pretty hard to find out that kind of stuff, but then it's the internet, there are always other ways to go about things.

I stumbled upon LocateAmerica.com and browsing around, I found all the people that I have been looking for. It's a HUGE database of virtually all the people in the United States and their name, address, and sometimes more. I decided to try it out and paid $20 for a 24-hour pass to do as many searches you want. I found quite a bit of people and although I'm not sure if the addresses that it gave me will be accurate, I'm going to try anyhow. I already wrote the letters to each of my old middle school friends. Of course they're not all different, just changed the name on most of them. Anyway, yeah, hopefully I'm going to send those out soon and see if I get any replies back. That would be cool if I did, but I have a feeling I might get ONE reply back and this entire ordeal would have been a waste of time, money, and envelopes and stamps. No matter, I looked back (well, more like thought back) at all the stuff that I did back when I was in middle school in California. Fun times.

Among other news, I have been submitting a lot of internship information and requests the last month or so. A few seem really probable, but we'll see about that. An internship that really seems fun is at Alaska, but I saw that it's not paid, which could cause problems, so I'm not submitting that yet. I'm looking into it though.

Laura is working right now. She worked from 10pm last night, and well, I guess until 10pm tonight. 24-hours! Anyway. She got Tales of Symphonia for Christmas and she's been playing that for the last couple of days. I just got into it and it's fun. Since it's sort of close to an RPG, I just spent a bit of time just fighting enemies and leveling and powering up. Ah, how RPGs work.

What else...nothing else! Um, yeah. Seriously, I sometimes even wonder if anyone reads this!

So fast forward to December 24th...Christmas Eve. Again, it's been two months since I've written on here. Oh well. To update, things have generally been the same around here. Big news, however, include Laura and TJ graduating from CSU. We went to each of their graduation ceremonies and it was good to see them walk...though I don't know if I'll walk yet. Everybody is good. Went to Laura's house in Denver to exchange a couple of gifts and such. Ohhh, that's another big thing, presents! The group gave each other our gifts early since people wouldn't be here in town for Christmas. Anyway, I got some cool shit including a RMNP pass for next year, a video camcorder and of course DVDs. Ashley got a watch, martini set, and others, Chris a game steering wheel and DVDs, TJ some house warming gifts, and Laura some decorative stuff and a Kitchen Aid stand mixer. All and all it was a fun time.

So, what now? Well, I'm going to be starting my last semester here at CSU on the 18th of January...I can't believe it's come down to this already! Back in 2000 when I started, of course I was hoping to get out in 4 years...after a year of screwing around, getting kicked out (man, that sounds bad!), going to Front Range, getting my act together, and finally coming back here, I've realized that I've gone through quite a bit during my college years. Most good, some bad. Now it's coming down to the final chapter of this part of life huh? I'm currently trying to find an internship lined up for the upcoming summer since it's sort of required to get my degree, but I'm not in a hurry. I don't think I'll be "using" that degree soon anyway.

Yesterday I sent out an e-mail to a bunch of people saying happy holidays. I got one back from a friend from middle school whom I keep in touch with on an infrequent basis...like once or twice a year. I asked if she wanted to meet up the next time I went to California (which could be a long time!) but yeah, it brought up memories. Really, I remember back in those days when we'd do nothing and get by. We would play games outside, camp in the back yard, "stay over" at each others' houses (and the funny and nostalgic part of that was the whole process of asking our parents if it was ok, lol) and stuff like that. I remember biking around our little town plaza and buying ice cream in the summer time and so forth. I really miss those days. If I had a wish, I would probably ask to be back in that time period again. Well, maybe money if it were really to happen, but second would be to go back in time, as many times as we could, as secretly as we wanted. That would be cool. Anyway, that was my flash back for this blog.

And then, I just realized that this blog has been in existence since 2002...that's crazy. I have gone back and read some of the earlier ones but that brings back memories too. I wonder what everyone I've mentioned has been doing, like Ben, Derek, Rod, etc. Sometimes I think maybe I should have kept in touch with them or something. Oh well.

So anyway, one more semester, and then an internship and who knows what will happen. In April, we'll find out where Laura was accepted for graduate school and that'll partly determine what will be happening. That's in 4 months. So I guess in those 4 months, the best thing will be for me to keep looking for an internship and hopefully securing one, doing good in school and taking some time to reflect back on what I've done so far and not to take things for granted. Wait, was that just like a set of resolutions for 2005? Maybe.

I'm out for this session, but I will be back as long as blogger.com stays in business!

Laters.

Wow...almost 2 months!

Lots to update I guess.

First off, my website, www.csuforums.com has been a real success in my eyes. Yeah, there isn't as many members as the # of students at CSU but hey, it's getting there and it's only been 2 months. Anywho, I've met some awesome people throught these forums and I'm hoping that I can keep the momentum behind it and try to get a lot more people through the months to come.

Second, my car is doing good. Just today actually, I painted my FMIC black, so it looks more "stock" than before. I think I lost a little power, but oh well. No big deal.

Third, and this is probably the biggest news, is that I'm graduating in the spring! Yes you heard right. If I can take all the classes I need without any hitches, all 6 classes and I should be able to because I already checked it online and I can fit all of them in. May is the expected graduation and my Mom and my brother want to come see for some reason. Whatever. I'm stoked. So, come to think of it I'm not graduating all that late. 5 years. I mean, it would have been sooner without the 1 year of dicking around...so 4 years...right on the money. But yeah, I'll be graduating with a Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism major. I want to work outside and hopefully at a resort or something but we'll see. I still need to do an internship next summer or I won't technically get a degree...like, I'll walk at the ceremony I think, but not get my degree until that fall or something.

Fourth, I got a new cell phone! Yeah, I thought I needed a new one about now, so I went ahead and bought it. Actually, my Mom and I are sharing minutes right now. She got a new phone too.

Other than that, that's the news really. Everything's been a-ok. Laura's been working a lot so I don't see her much, but we're doing good. We're coming up on 3 years soon! :) We're going to go to the sushi place we went to on our first date. Should be fun!

But anyway, I thought I'd give a little update on my so called life. Everyone else is doing good. Ashley is good and will be graduating in the spring as well, TJ and Laura will both be done in December and Ben will be done in the spring too. I talked to him a few times over the last couple of weeks. Seems like everyone is just busy, busy, busy.

I think it's Holly's b-day tomorrow and we're going to go each with them or something, but I'm out of the news on this one. I'll know tomorrow I guess.

I'll catch you laters!

Hey well it was ALMOST 2 weeks! Things have been hectic lately. I didn't realize that school was so close. 4 more days! The freshman moved in today. Saturday is me and Laura's weekend out. We're staying at a hotel, watching movies, and eating dinner. Should be really fun! Also, I began a project. A project of big proportions. www.csuforums.com. A message board for CSU students. My goal is to get the entire student body involved...hey, it probably won't happen, but it's a good goal right? Just opened a couple of days ago and it's flourishing. I hope this becomes big and the talk of the campus during the first week in school. Thanks to all that helped me and are helping me out on this project. my main website is going great as well. Anyway, I think I ate too much or something because my stomach is upset, but that's always the case. Chris went to Vegas for pretty much 2 days, since Wednesday. He's getting back tomorrow. That's all the news I have. Laters.

My god...it's almost 5 in the morning on Sunday. I haven't slept up until now. I tried to go to bed at like 11:30 or so, and even layed down in my bed, but I couldn't sleep...so I got on my laptop and voila, it's fricken 5. Unbelievable. I'm going to be tired the rest of the day...

Laura's going to be back in Denver tonight and back home tomorrow!!! Woohoo.

The amount of frustration I have right now toward money and buying things is ridiculous right now...I'll leave it at that. I'm way to pissed.

It's 2 in the damn morning and I'm laying here watching music videos. Evanescance's My Immortal music video is a great video. I watched that over and over. I never get tired of it...the fact that Amy Lee is hot might have something to do with it, lol, but it IS a good song. That's all I wanted to say I guess. Yup, gotta get to sleep. Laters.

I'm listening to "This Kiss" by Faith Hill right now for some reason. I like this song, but still. It's weird. It's raining again. Dammit! I just called my friend in California too. It's his b-day. Why is it that every time I call someone to tell them happy b-day, or even write to them, they say, "Oh!! You remembered?" Every fucking time. It's not that hard to remember one date and on that date say happy b-day...they think it's like a fucking miracle. Once they tell me, it's not like I register to my head saying "Oh, they told you their b-day, forget it." I don't know. Whatever. It was good to talk to him though. He's doing good. I asked him about his little brother and he's 18 I guess...damn! I remember when he was like 10 or 11. Time passes so quick.

But yeah, Laura will be back next Monday! That's like 5 days. And it's going to go quick because Thursday/Friday is a cake at work...ahem, if I go that is. I want a project to do but I don't know what. I'll think of a funny thing though. I think tonight I'm just going to listen to music and chill. Might get coffee or something but I need to stop spending money. I need to get my credit card down even more because I found out I have to pay a little more for tuition and the financial aid won't cover all of it...so. And I NEED to think about the Ireland trip. Dammit!!!! I need money fast. I need to think of stuff to do you know? I don't have anything to sell because, well, I sold it already. :

Well gonna go. Laters.

I just want to add that it's the little things in life that are the best memories. Yup, that's true. In the end, money, how big a house you have, what car you have, what achievements you've done and stuff like that really don't matter. Really, it's great if you have all that stuff, but what good is it if you die alone? Or die in misery, sadness, etc.? Granted being rich is good, but only on the outside and only up to the point where you pass away and that little, yet significant moment where you look back at your life and think to yourself what was my life about. Was my life meaningful. That sort of questions. These questions aren't answerable until the very end of your life and it's a good bet that you don't want to be in that situation without anything to look back on. So, just remember that little things prevail in the end, not the big things.

Call me old fashioned, but I just got the old school NES with 8 games in the mail today. It rocks. I also have Super Mario 1, 2, and 3 that I bought for Laura. All the games work fine except the first Super Mario. I've cleaned the pins with water, but no go. Later I'll try cleaning it with some cleaning solution. Hopefully that'll patch things up. Excite Bike, I gotta tell ya, is the best damn game ever. :)

*Note to Laura*
Happy early X-mas present Laura. Haha, just kidding. This was a gift to you from me for being a great gf! Hope you have fun with it...when you get back of course.

I'm going to go play a bit more now.

Well before I head to bed and get up tomorrow to go to work, yes I'm going to work, but only for a little bit and to sign my timesheet, :P, I thought I'd mention some memorial stuff. I'm sittin' here looking at my 5th grade yearbook. Holy shit that's a long time ago. 11 years ago, probably around this time, I was doing what I was doing in the yearbook. I can't believe how time flies so fast and stuff. I'm actually really glad that technology like photography captures these moments. I don't think I had a worry in my life back then. Maybe here and there and possibly family stuff, but not too much. I can CLEARLY remember the friends that I hung out with during that year, looking at my class of course. I remember playing kick ball on the fields, running around the play area, having student/teacher conferences and having classroom activities. I really believe that it was a fun time. I kid that my childhood wasn't all that great. From a, say, financial perspective, I really wasn't. But from a social perspective and stuff like that, I think I was. Family wise I wasn't so much either but I spent most of my time at my friend's house and came home, did homework if there was any, played video games with my brother until bed time and head to bed. Simple life huh? And then fast forward 11 years and here I am. Writing to this blog, on my laptop, worrying about school, work, missing someone I love and getting everyday things done. Is this how life is? You have a pretty laid back childhood, go through the "education" stage, then graduate, finding a job, then retiring? I hope every life isn't supposed to be like this. I'd like my life to have some sort of uniqueness, not in the sense that everyone's life is unique because of the different people involved, but the way I LIVE my life. I don't want a normal life. I really don't. You only have one life to live and I don't want to waste it on normality. Oh well, we'll see what happens huh?

It's raining like hell here. It's been like this most all day. I don't like the rain, but it's kind of nice listening to the water hit the ground outside and the roof as you go to sleep. I just noticed that I ONLY use the space bad with my right thumb so there's a big "bald" spot if you will on the right side of my laptop's space bar where it's worn out. I've tried using my left thumb as an alternative, but really my typing speed drastically reduces. It's weird because I really can't type well when I use my let thumb! Har, har.

I'm off to bed. See ya later. Oh yeah, it was Chris' b-day yesterday, but I think I already mentioned that two days ago. I don't remember.

Well, it's about an hour before Chris' b-day tomorrow. 22 is the age. Gettin' old. We ain't doing much though. We were going to go eat tomorrow with Ashley and others, but Chris will be with his parents to dinner, so. I don't know what's going to happen. Things have seemed to settle down in my life. A couple of more weeks to push through before Laura's back. My website's almost fully functional. It's nice to have 4GB of space as opposed to 1GB. Bigger is always better. lol.

Anyway, I was just coming in for a little bit. Heading out now. Laters.

What's up people. First off I'd like to say that I have a new favorite song. Stain'd "How About You". The lyrics are great and the song itself is just cool. Read the lyrics and you'll understand.

Anyway, I'm broke as hell. The last couple of days I just spent like $200 or so dollar, probably more like $300. Bunch of various stuff but yeah. I didn't go to work today either. I don't know what's with me!

I watched bits and pieces of Good Will Hunting. It's a great movie. This is a pretty quick blog. I'm actually going to head to bed. I need to get up for a long day tomorrow. 1 1/2 weeks until Laura gets home! :)

Hello! It's almost 1am and I'm starting this blog. I hope everyone's been great. Laura's almost home!! About 2 more weeks is all. Her parents left today for England.
 
I'll just into the mist with this blog. I was rummaging through my old memorabilia, if you wanna call it that, from like my childhood days, roughly from elementary school to 8th grade and I began to think...when were the best days of my life? As I was reading all this old stuff, I was thinking to myself that those days were for the most part pretty fun and happy. I mean, I'm sure it was the same for many of you, but you know, the wasn't a worry back then. The only thing I really had to worry about was homework and that wasn't even a challenge for me back then. I was reading all these things I was doing for all my classes and some of those things I even forgot that I did them! Like, for example, I was part of a service learning group of like 10 kids where we did cool stuff for the community to make it better and stuff like that. One of the more fun ones was when a group of us would go to a nearby elementary school and after school, we should walk these kids home, direct traffic and stuff like that. Another time we would try and start food drives for the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. And another big one was our graffit clean up program. We would get donations from around the community and buy paint and clean up all the graffiti that was around the town. I think all and all it was a great experience don't you think?
 
And now here I am, wanting to become more involved with helping the community and stuff. Public relations sort of stuff. Maybe I was made to be one? :)

I also found a old project that I did for school and it involved me getting grass from my backyard and putting it on paper...I just realized that those blades of grass were from my old house in California...damn near 10 years old! Still intact, not molding or anything. lol.
 
Sometimes I wish I can like, create a home movie with video clips from my childhood days. Perhaps in the future when we have time machines and stuff, we can go back, and secretly tape ourselves when we were small and come home and edit it into a home movie. That would be cool.
 
I haven't hung out much with Ashley, TJ, or anyone else. I haven't really seen Chris either since he works until later on the in the night and I'm using going to sleep early. Hopefully when everyone's back and the summer is coming to and end, we can all go out and have some fun.
 
My car has been giving me a shitload of problems too, albeit they're problems I'm causing. A couple of nights ago I decided to do a certain project again and it didn't go so well. I was like, all right and my night went on. It was a bad night!!!! As I was getting in my car from the grocery store, the button on my shorts broke...wtf?!?? And then on the way home, one of my fuel lines apparently came loose and squirted gas everywhere for the last couple of hundred feet before the house...so there was a trail of gas. And then I opened the hood and there it was, the hose just squirting gas everywhere. I fixed that and that was I think the end of the bad night. I was glad that it was over. I'm going to take it easy now for the next few weeks. I don't want any big troubles. Just going to work and try to pay off my credit card.
 
Anyway, that's it from the home front. Still trying to work out the details on the Ireland trip. I'll keep you guys posted.
 
Laters.

I thought I'd put up a post since it's been a couple of weeks or so. I'm doin' all right. Nothing new. Did I write that I dropped my class this semester? I don't think so. But yeah, I did. I didn't feel like taking that class at all. The bad news is that I HOPE I'm not behind because of that little dropping. We'll see. The Ireland thing is getting closer and closer you know that? I'll know by August's end if I'm going in November or not. Hell yeah! I'm psyched if I can go. Another thing, I've been downloading loads of new songs. Lots of cool ones. I found a cool internet radio place where it places awesome songs and I can fortunately rip from it. I don't know what I'm going to do tonight. Probably nothng like usual. It looks like it's going to rain. I miss Laura a lot!!! It's almost time that she's going to be back. A couple of more weeks. I can't believe 4 weeks has passed already. It really only seems like it's been a couple of weeks since she left. I just got a sudden urge to search for airline tickets online, so I'll be back I'm sure. Oh and I got A's in all my classes this summer! Woot!

4th of July really sucks. Really not my thing, but the good thing is that school is always out and that I get paid since it's a federal holiday. Anywho, doing nothing much once again. I thought Laura was going to call, but didn't. I feel asleep mysteriously around 6:00pm or so on my room couch staring at the sky and woke up around 9. Damn! A few more days of class left. Woohoo. There is absolutely not one good movie out. What is up with that? the closest one that is coming out that I know I will watch is most likely Anchorman...but that's already out, so...um, yeah, I guess it would be the Bourne Supremacy. Chris' b-day is coming up soon. I don't think I have anything to get because I'm a little tight on cash but we'll see. I say that a lot. About a month left before Laura gets home! Yay. I can't wait. I'm probably going to research what we can do on the weekends. Probably Melting Pot/movie/hotel. Shouldn't be too much that we'd have to pay out of our pockets since we already have $120 from other stuff. :D Anyway, I'm gonna go. This is fun. Laters.

Saturday night, not doing much. Actually today I did something rather cool. I made a little video for Laura since I missed her and she's gone for another month and all. She can't see it until she gets back, but I think I personally did a good job on it and I actually sort of had fun doing it! Nah, I did have fun doing it. I'd like to make another another time, but we'll see. I hope you like it Laura! I'll show it to you when we do our little weekend alone or something. I've watched it a few times already and I don't tire of it. :) Which is a good thing.

It looks like it's going to rain here. It's currently 8:33pm and counting. I might make some coffee. I should go running or something. I'm pretty unproductive if you ask me. Amy and her Mom came into town and I ate dinner with them last night. It was pretty fun. Actually it was a bigger than normal group, because we also had TJ and his friend Lindsey..er, Lindsay, I don't know which way. Amy will be going to the Art Institute in Denver, so she'll be here for a month I think first and stuff.

Everytime I write in here I always think this Blog stuff is just weird. Who am I talkin' to anyway? Beats me. As I look down on my keyboard at this very moment, the right side of my spacebar is worn out from the thousands of times I push it with my right thumb. Really interesting actually...kinda bothering me since I can't get rid of it.

Well, that's all for the Saturday Night Live...

Actually, it looks like it's going to be a "Neverending Story" type of storm outside...

Another edition, late on a Thursday night. So I'm most likely going to head to Ireland in November IF I can get at least $1000 paid on my credit card...now, this isn't no easy task. If anything, I'll head to Ireland maybe in January if I have time, but right now it looks grim either way. Arg. That's really all I wanted to say. Bandimere got rained out, so I'm going next Wednesday to do my racing. Stopped by Laura's parents' house and talked to them a bit before I went and met up with Zach. It's been so long since I saw him, but he hasn't changed much, granted he lost a little weight and hasn't cut his hair in his normal fashion. Anyway, I'm gonna go. See ya.

Well, this must be the quickest 'next blog' since a while huh? Anyway, it's damn near 1am right now, but since I had my old computer in front of me and I couldn't sleep yet, I decided to peruse through my old ass e-mails that I had saved...dating back to the stone ages. Well, the oldest one was November of '00. That's pretty old if you ask me. Well I was reading through much of the e-mails and man, can I see a change in me and my lifestyle. I really can. Like, I literally saw my life changing, whether it be events or friends. In the pile of e-mails I had ones where Ben e-mailed me while I was in Cali, during breaks and what not. There are just too many things to mention, but I just can't believe how different my life really is when you compare it to the past. Right now I wouldn't have said anything has changed, but boy, has it ever. I'd wish I'd kept all my e-mails since like '98 or something when I first got my account, but '00 is pretty damn close anyway, so. I'm happy. I think it's a good idea to keep all your old e-mails. Makes for a great laugh sometimes. I have some e-mails from my friends that I would have never thought they'd write. Haha. It's just funny thinking about it. Well that's all I wanted to write just now. Just had the urge to write it, you know, before I lost the thought. I'll have to share some of these e-mails with my friends and see what they think of it. Anyway, I miss you Laura! I can't wait until you get back. We'll have to plan some alone time...especially since you left that $60. :) We can use it for us or something. Well, I better get to sleep, so I can get up in time to get to class. Laters.

It seems like I have so much time to waste over the weekend now. What did I do this weekend? Absolutely nothing. I vowed to read for my Psychology class, but that didn't happen. I need another job or another hobby or something. It's getting pathetically boring. Anyway, my Ireland trip MAY be moved forward to November because it's a lot cheaper that way, but we'll see. I e-mailed away for information to about 4-5 places, so hopefully I can get that information back soon and I'll start picking the best ones. It should cost in total about $1000 for air, land, and spending money. Not too bad. I'm ready to get out of this boring little place we call the United States, though. Woo hoo. I'm going now. Tonight was a short session. Laters.

Here are some of my thoughts put along side Staind's So Far Away. :) my thoughts are in bold

This is my life - (Duh)
It's not what it was before - (Really true, things have changed so much)
All these feelings
I've shared - (New feelings every day, every year, met new people...)
And these are my dreams
That I'd never lived before - (I'm so happy to be living my life right now)
Somebody shake me 'cause I
I must be sleeping - (Don't shake me!)

Chorus
Now that we're here, it's so far away
All the struggle we thought was in vain
All the mistakes, one life contained
They all finally start to go away - (Good comes to those who wait, I guess)
Now that we're here, it's so far away
And I feel like I can face the day
I can forgive, and I'm not ashamed
To be the person that I am today - (Self explanatory)

These are my words
That I've never said before - (I love you Laura)
I think I'm doing okay - (Yup, I'm doing okay despite what I think, it's not all about money)
And this is the smile
That I've never shown before - ( :) )
Somebody shake me 'cause I
I must be sleeping - (No!)

Sorry this post doesn't do justice, but it's a lot better if you read along with the actual song playing in the background.

Ahh!!! This morning I heard my phone ring at around 9:24. I woke up and I was like, who could be calling me? Then I fell back asleep and I woke up around 10:15. Not 5 minutes ago, the phone rang. The funny thing was, I was sitting at my desk and was like, I wonder who called? And then I remembered it was a different ring, so I went to check it out. Seriously, AS I picked up the phone, the phone rang again. It was just weird. The timing was like perfect. It said blocked ID, so I didn't answer. I listened to the other voicemail that was left and it was Laura!!! Dammit, I should have answered the second call. But man, it was strange though. She calls 1000s of miles away and I pick up the phone at the right time at the right place. We're meant to be huh? Anyway, I am hoping she will call again. They're 7 hours ahead I believe, which put them at around 5:30pm. I hope she's doing all right! And yes, I said it already, but I hope she will call again.

Whoa! I think this may be the first time that I used two paragraphs in a blog. I will be studying intensely tomorrow for a test on Monday. That's about it for this weekend. I miss Laura a lot. Kinda boring when she's not here. But then again Ft. Collins is boring. Well I'm going to go now. See ya.

Well, Laura left for Denver this morning. What a sad day. I didn't go to work. I actually did drive out to the office, but then took a U-turn at the parking lot and came home. Dunno why I didn't feel like going. Anyway, started my new Psych class, if I didn't tell you already. It shouldn't be hard at all. It's raining right now, which is quite amazing because it's been pretty much raining since like this morning. Hoping to go camping sometime soon too. My boss told me an interesting place so I want to try it out. Laura will be gone for about 6 weeks, which is damn long. Hopefully the Internet, MSN, and high speed internet will prevail. :) I'm gonna go. Laters.

Ahhhhhh, the first 4 weeks of classes are over and yet another 4 week begins in a couple of days. It really hasn't hit me until now that Laura is going to be leaving for Ireland in a few days. Wednesday morning exactly. That sucks. I'm going to miss her a lot. Really. 6 weeks!!! (I think) We'll manage I suppose. What's new? Nothing. I've been so damn busy and stressed out with school the last few weeks that I've been missing a whole bunch of stuff, mainly hanging out with Laura as much as I can before she leaves. Sucks, sucks, sucks! But, I do hope that it's a really fun time for her though. I am HOPEFULLY going in winter break, we'll see how that goes depending on the amount of money and debt I have laying around. That's the good news. I guess. We went to the zoo today and saw some cool animals. Then ate and came back. Chris is having girl problems but what's new right? A new girl named Allison is his target, but things aren't working for him, but we'll see. I need to slow down man. Life in general. I gotta enjoy what's going on you know? I'm going to the Renaissance Fair tomorrow with Laura and also Lee from work and her husband. It should be a fun time, really. Laura and I will be alone for a change which hasn't happened in a long time and our friends will be in medieval costume. Funny huh? I want to buy a bow and arrow from the fair, but it's $50 and it's expensive. I don't have that kind of cash. I'm really happy though that I did great in my first 2 classes. In addition to getting A's (yeah!) I am now a certified interpretive guide. Cool huh? A great resume booster I think. Also, we bought a new sofa today. Why? I don't know. I guess because it was cheap, pretty good quality, and because Shannon's roommates were the ones selling it. It's in the basement now, but I guess I really didn't need to buy it. Well, it was only $20, so it's not a big wallet cruncher. Anyway, I'm gonna get going. Laura is hanging out with her friends tonight and Chris is out somewhere, I think with Allison but I'm not sure. That's the news for the moment. Laters. Oh and I love you Laura! I'm gonna try and spend the next couple of days filling it with quality time. :)

It's blogger time! So this is finally the last week of my first 2 classes of the summer. It went well I suppose. I'm stressing out about this 10-minute speech coming up, but that's because it's for a certification process. I guess I don't really lost anything if I don't make the certification, just that I'm out $75...oh well. I've been listening to the New Age channel on Shoutcast a lot as well. It's cool. It may be cheesy, but it's soothing. I'm pretty much moved into our new house, though, which is good. Laura has a lot to go, but that's another story. And then there's always the money problem haunting me. It's always a damn problem. The problem is this. I spend JUST enough that the expenses outweigh my revenue, which causes debt. I can't pay that shit off! I have too much things to pay for. I need a second job is what I need, at least until I get this shit paid off. Among the other big news is that Ashley and TJ broke up. I guess life must go on huh? I don't know what else to say, but um, yeah, my website is flourishing day by day. I'm lovin' that. Success is always good. Anyway, I'm going to get going and finish up my assignment for tomorrow. Laters.

This is my 230th blog post. I didn't realize that I have written so much. I guess it's not THAT much considering I started nearly 3 years ago. Anywho, I'm all done moving in to the new house. It was probably one of the most, if not the most, annoying and frustrating things that a human being can do. It's by far been the most stressful thing I have done this year. Finals and school doesn't even come close, but when all these things come within a week or two of each other, it's unbelievably deadly. I just now need to find time to relax, concentrate on school since next week is the last week. Damn it goes so fast. Then I have another class right afterwards. Only 1 class, so I should be ok. So basically the entire house is a mess and we need to get working on it slowly and surely. I woke up waaay to early today and I'm tired as hell. I think the typical day should consist of 30 hours instead of 24. Seems much too short. But that's about the new news really. Just chugging along and working and paying the stupid ass bills. I really want to try and head down to the Renaissance Fair again this year, but we'll see what happens. It's either that or the Taste of Fort Collins. I don't know which is better. The latter you have to pay for everything, but the former you can just walk around and check stuff out and I like medieval stuff...hm...I'll post again in a couple of days when I have time. This week and next week is VERY hectic...I guess that means it could be a couple of week until the next post huh? Well, maybe I'll vent after my 10 minute speech next week. :)

Second week of school is coming up. I should really start to work on my speech topic and sorts. I have to give it in a couple of weeks! Anyway, Laura is in Denver for the next day or so. Also it looks like we're finally going to be able to move some time this week. Ain't that great. I have moving. I've moved every year now for, well, 4-5 years, I don't know which. In-fucking-credible. My car install went like crap. I tried to put something new on, and I did, but it didn't work. My car was un-drivable for a day and put everything back on. Total work time of probably damn near 20 hours or so. I hate it. Nothing new really. Been pretty laid back these days, albeit school had been taking a toll once again. I shouldn't have taken 2 classes in 1 4 week semester, but it's worth it I guess in the long run. Next 4 week term is only one class, so it won't be that hard. Thank god. Just listening to some trance right now. About to go get a can of Coke. I better start packing too, but to tell you the truth, I really couldn't find stuff to pack. They're already packed from the last move. Isn't that convenient? Well I'm going to get going. Will be writing again soon.

I'm getting better aren't I? Maybe it's because I have more time or something. Anyway, my class are well underway and I think it's not going to be so bad. We're doing lots of classroom interactive stuff in my interpretive class, like activitise and skits. I'm not that kind of person, but I like it. I'm growing more and more into it. Tonight Laura and friends (sorry, I don't want to name them all) are going to a Jimmy Buffet concert. I don't know what that's all about. What am I going to do? Probably nothing. Getting coffee I think but that's about it. I should get started on my new project for my car. Once and for all I can beat the fuck out of Chris' car after this install, but it's a big one and I DO NOT want to rush this as I can potentially break my car. I'm at work, surprisingly. It's going good as well. Anyway, here's some big news. I will be DEFINITELY going to Ireland this coming winter break. I've been saying this for a while and stuff, but it looks like it's going to happen this time. I'd love to have gone with Laura, but the prices that I was raving about since they were cheap was because it was during the off season, which is winter. Oh well. But I can't wait to get out of this country again. The time I went to Japan with my friend was really fun, you know, to get away from the American culture and all. We'll see how the British are! I still have to narrow down the packages that I'm going to order, but most likely it's going to consist of 7 days of freedom including bed and breakfast stays, some food, and a car rental, which I'm weirded out about. I mean, I know I can drive, but in another country? It's going to be weird. I'm going to go check out the packages and stuff again. See you laters.

Wow, this new blogger interface changed since the last time I posted. I didn't catch a glimpse of when my last post was but it was some time ago. Well the spring semester is over. Granted that the final couple weeks took a toll on me and my grades, I think I got out unscathed on this one. First of all, my most hated class gave me more problems than I wanted. Our group turned in this major presentation thing and we had to do it over because of "certain" reasons. I'm sure you can guess. Actually, I would say we were lucky to be able to re-do it and still in school at that. :) Other than that and the fact that I didn't do well at all on all but 1 final, I'd say it ended in a bad way. However, I'm FINALLY off probation in this damn university. I'm glad about that. Summer school starts in a couple of days. I'm in the school mode if you know what I mean. Work is good. I'm still with Laura, which is about the only thing good that's happening in my life right now. My car is running fine as well and am getting ready to do another big modification to my car here soon. Probably within the next week or so. As I was driving back today, I was thinking to myself that my life, although hectic and such, isn't bad at all...compared to the lives of others, that is. I'm sure there are people out there that are working 10 times as hard as me, having 10 times less fun as me, and having 10 times more money trouble than I am having. I should stop taking my life for granted. Oh well. I'm trying. What's the next big news that's coming up soon...birthdays. Arg, I hate birthdays. I even hate my birthday. Memorial day which traditionally marks the "beginning of summer" is around the corner as well. Laura and I went and saw Troy today. I liked it. One of the previews was that of Ocean's Twelve, the sequel. That looks promising even though I didn't see any visual aspects of the movie. But that's way the fuck in the end of the year. So, what else. I am confident that I'm going to try and take a one week trip to Ireland this coming winter break. It's too bad that I can't make it this summer, when Laura will be going. She'll be leaving in a month for a month. I'm going to miss her. Can't talk to her all the time on the phone, you know, because of price issues, but hopefully she'll have some sort of internet connection there. I might try and get that unused laptop from my brother-in-law, but we'll see. She should just take Chris', but she's afraid she might break or lose it. That's another thing. Our moving issue. We have no idea what is going on with our living situation for next month. Ben hasn't said much to Chris and we don't know what's going on and we HAVE to move out by the end of the month. How much does that suck? Time is winding down. Anyway, I'm going to head to bed. It's 2am. It's late. I'm damn tired. See ya until next time, which I predict will be sometime in the middle of the summer.

So I got my laptop and it's working great so far. I love the new technology these days. Weekend was good. We grilling with a few friends at a local park. Played some frisbee, roller skated around, etc. Then got some ice cream and went home. Looks like this week is going to be a laid back week. Got one paper to do, which shouldn't be that hard and a little research thing that shouldn't take a long time. I need to e-mail or mail something to my friend in California. I said I would like a month ago and I haven't. I feel kinda bad. He's a good friend. I'll try and get something out his way soon. I'm listening to some old, old Japanese music right now as I write in here. Brings back a lot of memories, let me tell ya. That's all I have to report now. It's getting close to the point where we will be moving back into Chris' old house. Hopefully. Anyway, see ya.

I think this is the second blog entry that I've ever done from work. That's right. Well, since last week I've taken a few tests, and the big news for this blog is that I sold my old laptop to my Mom and I just got a new one that is supposed to be delivered to my house this morning. It's a Compaq refurb of a model that I wanted and it was $250 cheaper as well as it had more RAM. I just hope that the "refurb" part doesn't make the unit less efficient. Other than that, I do have another test today and a take home test due on Friday which I'll probably start tomorrow or so. I work better under pressure. Things have been VERY hectic lately though. I don' t know why. Seems like it's that time of year or month or whatever where the stars line up or something and virtually every important event in your life at the time happens simultaneously. I've seen Dawn of the Dead (I think I wrote that in my last blog) and a couple of days ago I saw Jersey Girl, which I really liked. I always like those father/mother - daughter kind of movies. I also finally changed my major on Thursday to NR Recreation and Tourism and was, for the first time, able to get into all the classes that I wanted in. 18 credits at the moment. I may drop one class, making it 15, but we'll see. I may be able to handle it considering one of the class is a 101 class, so it should be THAT hard. But then again, way back in the day, this Physics class, I think it was a 141 class, was the hardest class on this Earth. I am also going to see if my Mom's old laptop can find its way to Laura since she needs it for studying abroad and stuff. I'm sure it's not a problem, but that laptop is damn near 7-8 years old, making it an ancestor in technological terms. But, it IS still a laptop which can be used, so. Shannon is out for the next week for a wedding or something. Seems like this time of year, everyone's getting married. A friend of mine is also going to two other weddings in May I think. Why doesn't anything get married in the Winter? It's not like it's that bad. Casey is going to be studying in Alaska for next semester. That would be cool. Chris has been buying some new stuff for his car too. Having troubles, but we're still about the same in terms of speed. Ha, go Honda power I say. The next movie that I'm probably going to see in the theater is probably Troy, but anything can happen. My website is also doing good. Thousands of visitors a month is good for me. All and all, things are hectic, but fine in my life. I'm gonna jet. Laters.

April 5th already. Not much again has changed. The last few days I wrote out a mass e-mail, each one different of course, to all my friends in my address book. About half of them wrote back (the real friends, as they say) and they're doing good. It seems like everyone is due to graduate this year sometime. A few are going to graduate school, and a few don't know what they'll be doing. Around this time, I think a lot of people go through this phase of "what should I do now"? I mean, yeah, school has been really fun (college). I met lots of new people, made lots of new and good friends, and heck I've even learned a thing or two. Do I really want to finish up college? I don't know. A part of me says yeah, a part of me says keep going to school. Maybe because I want to avoid what's really out there. Who knows. I still have a good year or so left, so I'm not in a hurry, but I should start thinking about the future. Hell, I'm already 22! Laura is going to graduate school, dunno where yet though. Chris told Ben that he should find a new place for next year and that has been a big ordeal too. The newest thing recently for me that I increased my boost for my turbo to 7psi. :) If you know what that means. Other than that, I haven't been working too much, since my school schedule is fucked up, but that's cool. I have 2 months left in this apartment and then it's probably back to Chris' house. Times are changing quick! My website has also been doing great. More and more visitors each month. But yeah, overall, things have been damn hectic for me the last couple of weeks. And this stupid ass cold is lingering a bit and allergies are kicking my ass. In 6 hours I'll be leaving for Longmont for an ortho appointment. Another one of those 2-hour total drive time for 10 minutes at the office. Waste of time and money if you ask me. So, what's been on my mind lately? Not a whole lot, really. Too many things going on to think at all. The Daylight Saving Time is also weird and hard to get adjusted to for some reason this year. I apparently slept from around 12pm last night to 5pm or 6pm. I totally thought I slept to only like 11am, but I guess not. Damn, I've never slept that much either. I think my body just caved and had to catch back up with me you know? Again this week is sort of hectic too. 3 tests I believe, with my first being today. A group meeting too so I have to finish my part before Wednesday. Damn, I hate it when it gets all busy. Anyway, I better head out. It's going to be a loooong day today. Laura's sister and bf are coming up to see the campus as well. I'll be accompanying dinner only, though. Well, I'll write again when I get the chance.

Woohoo! Almost 2 months without an entry. I can't believe this thing is still here. Amazing. So, what's been new since, damn, before my b-day! Well, I'm 22 now as you can imagine. School's been better than ever, compared to the other semesters that is. I've installed an intercooler on my car since the last blog too. Cool huh? My website has been booming as of late too. Still, the only thing that hasn't changed is the fact that I'm broke with a big debt in the credit card. Oh well. Anyway, the biggest news that's recent is that I'm going to Vegas in a couple of days with Laura, Chris and Ashley. TJ is staying in town because of a few friends that are coming to town and he's broke or something. Hm...what else...nothing new really. Friend situation has changed, but not much. Haven't hung out with or seen Holly or Susan lately. They're doing their own thing. I've been becoming better friends with Casey though since I've had a lot of classes with her and with Shannon too. Moved downstairs at work too. Nicer place. I'll hopefully be moving (again) to CHris' house, but we'll see about that. That'll be in May. I fricken hate moving. Such a pain in the ass. Really that's about all. I really should keep a better record of blogs but I just seem to forget it. Maybe I'll add it to my favorites? I will do that right now. Ok, done. I've been playing a lot of Gamecube too. I'm not sure if I wrote that in here, but yeah, playing Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and got a disc containing the old, old, very old NES Zelda series. Old school! It's fun though. Well, I think I'll be going now. I promise to myself (I know, again) that I'll start writing in here more often. See ya next time.

Hello everyone. The new year is underway by a big margin. School has started and I am finding it harder and harder to find time to fit in work. Who would have thought huh? Anyway, my classes will be ok. Nothing new really. Books to buy and you know the drill, each semester. Booked our hotels for Las Vegas for our spring break. Now we just have to wait. 2 more months. Laura's b-day is coming up too, as well as Valentine's. Oh yeah, I guess I should mention my b-day coming up too huh? In 8 days I guess. 22. Damn, that's old. I should be graduated and shit now. As I think about it, it was all good screwing around and stuff, since I was still 21 and under and stuff, but once 22 hits, you're like, wow, I should be starting my career now, or something like that. I'll be graduating damn near 23, maybe even 24. That's late. Oh well. I should get going. I don't have anything to do, but yeah, I'll be going.

Yo ho ho, I hope everyone had a merry Christmas. I don't even believe in Christ. ??? Anyway, 2 hours and 47 minutes until 2004. Live long and prosper.

Well, since the car turbo install, it's been just over a month. Well, okay, more than a month. Almost two. What this blog, which may very well be my last for this year, will cover is all the important stuff that happened this year. There's a lot. So I might take a while writing it. I just hope I finished within an hour so I can watch Good Eats. Anyway, let's head off. I can't believe 2003 is over already. When I started the year, I was still going to FRCC, trying to get back on track school wise. I bought Laura some jewelry for Valentine's, still lived at the old Sumac house and even friends with friends that we aren't friends with anymore. Of course, with change, comes some sort of constancy. I'm still with Laura, of course. Ashley is still with TJ. Chris is, well, you know the drill. Ben is still with Remi. And that's about all I have to mention in that area. Man, I can't even really remember that far back. Until about the start of Summer, I still had the astronomy class with Rod. Around that time, when school was about to end, things started going sour for reasons I don't know and thus starts the summer school session. I talked to Rod maybe once since then. I took speech class and found out I really liked that class. Maybe that class made me more social in a way outside of home. Maybe, maybe not. Who knows. But I did like that class a lot like I said. The start of the summer really changed me for my motivation for school. My route also changed for a degree. I looked to Rec and Tourism because, well, at the time because it was the easiest degree to get. Now I'm beginning to think that I might actually like it. During the summer, Ashley, TJ, Susan (more on her later), and other camp folk left for camp. Laura stayed, probably because for me. I'm such a whiner. We grew closer I thought living over the summer alone and then we moved into the same apartment for this semester. Ashley also moved to her own place not too far from here. I deem the split up, as do most others probably, a good thing. You know. By then, we've been good friends wise. Chris started to get into the picture more, as did TJ. Friends started to split even further. Ben hung out with JT and Ben, who lives in their own place near old town. Remi may be the cause of that, but who knows. Susan also lives at home for this semester, and she leaves for Greeley next semester. She started hanging out with Casey and Val and other friends. So there went that group of friends. I had a class with Casey and I really don't think she's that bad of a friend, but others may think otherwise. I met some new friends through school and work and I think all and all, this year was positive. The friends that we associate with got a little closer in a way which is a good thing. Through hard times and fun times, things like that happen. Now that I sit here and write about the stuff that's happened this year, it's all for the good. Things are supposed to happen how they happen. If I were to name all my problems right now at this very moment, I would have but one. That I am broke. But money is not always the case everytime. My car runs fine still with the turbo now broken in. Job's well. Friends are good. And for the first time I think I really did well in school. Laura got a job earlier in the semester which takes her time on Fridays and Saturdays, but I guess that's fine. Things are how they are, right? The holiday season always brings a warmth of fresh air and atmosphere to life. I'm not a big fan of it, but I do get some fun out of buying stuff for others and watching them receive it, whether it is faked or not. :) Again, this reminds us that it's the little things in life that are important. My website has been doing fairly well I think since it started in June and got up to speed throughout this semeser. I am going to strive to get more viewers next semester. Our movie collection has grown to about 75 now, which is nice, but not near what I want, which is potentially in the thousands. Hehe. Saw some great movies too this year. Pirates of the Caribbean, The Matrix, The Last Samurai, X-Men 2, and not to forget the Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Music wise, well, not much in that department. I haven't listened to music as intently as I did a year or two back, mostly probably because of the file trading shit going on. What else went on this year? Well, gas prices, oil issues, war, Saddam, Bush, and Michael Jackson. That pretty much sums up the year. However, the important thing that I care about now are primarily my friends. Earlier today I e-mailed a slew of people who I thought were close friends of mine wishing them good holidays and we'll see how many I receive back. Some friends have gone, but they've been replaced by other potentially great friends. Only time will tell. Looking forward to the exciting things that might or might not happen next year...a spring break trip to Las Vegas, an internship for me or a trip to Ireland, grades, friends, job, and just having fun. I think earlier in the year I didn't have as much fun as I did in, probably the last few months. My Mom quit the market job and now works at the gas station next door. I don't know, sometimes I wish I can win the lottery and let her retire or something. This year I've been good about being independent. I've borrowed next to nothing from my Mom, besides the money she gives for my b-day or Christmas or something. I try my best to not burden her. She doesn't need that. I, as usual, haven't heard from my brother Yoshi. I don't even think he's alive to be honest. lol. Just kidding of course. I'm sure he's doing something, somewhere. Before I sleep tonight, I'm going to try and just think. Think hard about what my life is full of and what I should be really happy about. I guess all this holiday stuff makes you think that. I even donated all my Magic: The Gathering cards to some kid who wanted it and yeah, I've been collecting for years and years...and yeah, I kept most of my good cards, but hey, it's something right? I mean, it was probably hundreds and hundreds of cards. Giving things away don't seem all that bad anymore. As you age, I think you become that way. You in a way "pass on" a part of you to someone who'll actually use it. I don't know. I'm just babbling. I've been writing for about 30 minutes now and I think I'm done. So, since I most likely won't write in here again until next year, I'd like to say it's been a great year, as always, and I am really thankful for all the friends and events that have kept me going and I am in debt, especially to Laura for keeping up with me and my antics. I love you so much! I'll find ways to pay you all back in the future. Here's to a great year passed, and to another great year up ahead. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.